German OEMs demo universal e-car charging system

October 11, 2011 //
By Christoph Hammerschmidt

At the International VDI congress and exhibition “Electronic Systems for Motor Vehicles”, vehicle manufactures Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, and Volkswagen are going to present the Combined Charging System for the first time. The Combined Charging System has been developed in close cooperation with American vehicle manufacturers Ford and General Motors (GM).

The universal charging system requires only a single charging interface at the vehicle allowing the customer to charge with all existing charging methods: one-phase AC charging, fast three-phase AC charging, DC charging at home or ultra-fast DC charging at public charging stations.

A uniform vehicle interface reduces the complexity for development and deployment of electric vehicles. Multiple connectors in the infrastructure and different charging inlets at the vehicle are not needed for AC-charging on the one hand and DC-charging on the other hand. This unification goes beyond the connector: The Combined Charging System integrates also the charging communication and the electric and safety architecture. This will lead to cost reduction and facilitates the spread of electro-mobility at world level, the participants hope. The French automotive industry pursuits its own standard; it is not yet clear if both standards will be compatible.

The concept of the Combined Charging System was submitted in close cooperation with the above mentioned American vehicle manufacturers to the International Standardization in January 2011. The presentation at Baden-Baden will show the installation of the Combined Charging System in vehicles of manufactures being part of this initiative. This marks another development milestone. The Combined Charging System will be ready for deployment mid 2012 and then introduced into the market.